K-9 detectionLocal resistance to bomb sniffing-dogs training facility

Canine explosive detection training // Source: blogspot.com

About forty residents of Jamesport, New York, showed up at a public hearing at Town Hall last Tuesday night to protest plans by Michael Stapleton Associates to establish a facility to train explosive-sniffing dogs at an existing horse farm on Aliperti Road, just west of Herricks Lane, with access, as well, from Rte. 25.

The plan by the company, which claims on its Web site to be “the largest provider of bomb dogs in the United States,” is to convert a horse barn on the 6.3 acre property, which now has fifteen horse stalls, into a commercial kennel.

Riverhead Patch reports that five of the residents, who all live near the proposed facility, spoke at the hearing, which was required because, though a horse farm is a “permitted use” in an Agricultural Protection Zone (APZ), a commercial kennel is listed only as a “special use,” which means the Town Board must approve a special permit before it can be allowed. And before that can be done, there must be a public hearing.

All of the speakers voiced concerns about the presence of explosives as well as the potential for noise from barking dogs, the increase in automobile traffic the facility would draw, and the possibility that children would be in danger by having so many dogs living so close.

They also voiced concerns that their property values would decline if the facility were to be built. “As soon as a buyer finds out what’s here, he’s going to run away, and we’re going to stuck with our homes,” said Steve Peyser, who lives on Aliperti Road.

John Harvey, director of canine training for Stapleton Associates, said there would be about sixteen pounds of explosives on the property, but no detonation devices. “The material is only there for the smells,” he said. “It’s there to ingrain the smell in the dogs’ minds. So there would be no fear of an explosion.”

Harvey said there would be no more that eight dogs at the facility at any one time and would remain at the facility for about six weeks. He also said that all of the dogs would be Labrador retrievers, “not German shepherds or any only breed that might be perceived as aggressive.”

Harvey, a retired bomb squad detective with the New York City Police Department, said the dogs would all be about 14-months old and “completely socialized,” so a problem with noise would be minimal. He also said that the kennel would be completely soundproofed.

Harvey said that before arriving in Jamesport, the dogs would have been trained at various prisons in the tri-state areas. And he noted that three employees — one of them a Marine who was wounded in Iraq — would reside at the site and would man a 24-hour-a-day hot line should any problems arise.

“We will train the dogs initially,” Harvey said, “but during the last week, they would be married with a handler who would take the dog home to live with him.” He said that each dog would return to the facility once or twice a year for what he called “sustainment training.”

Riverhead Patch quoted Harvey to say that his company had not yet purchased the property and would not do so unless a special permit were granted. Supervisor Sean Walter suggested that another site, further away from residences — perhaps somewhere in Calverton — might be a better choice.

According to its Web site, Michael Stapleton Associates “was the first security company in the United States designated and certified by the Department of Homeland Security to provide anti-terrorism technologies. Our bomb dog program,” the site says, “is the only one in the country with Department of Homeland Security Act certification.”